She spat the words out, her dark eyes and facial expression seeping out her hatred of us, of magical Falaira.
"You have worked hard yes." Said Khalashaya, a small smile on his face though he was so weakened by the Eurikayl.
"You do not speak to me" she said harshly, anger mixing with hatred on her face to form a collage of evil that made me recoil.
"How you escaped us before I have no idea, but this is your doing".
She reached out a hand and Khalashaya was suddenly thrown back against a wall of the corridor. His head hit the wall with a sickening crack and he lay still where he had fallen.
We were alone. This woman and I, two opposites of the same coin.
"You never went through the Dream" I gasped, shocked that the Gleema would have let that happen. They had been fiercely opposed to magic since before the dark days.
She looked away and then back at me.
"Sacrifice. Every generation one of us does it. How else do we fight an immoral magical minority hell-bent on destroying everything we have achieved? Destroying the peace that we died for?"
She held up her hand to me, I blocked her mentally.
"Just give me the Eurikayl Auriana, don't use it to make more evil ones. Give it to me and I will allow you and the magical ones to live."
I did not believe her for a second. The river of naked hatred behind her eyes, madness probably from being something she despised so much, belied her words.
"We want to destroy the Eurikaya with this". I said angrily. "And we will. We will eradicate them from the world forever".
She laughed, a harsh cackle that made her eyes glow. Forget my black hands, this was true evil. She had lost her mind.
Then she was on me and the Eurikayl was thudding against the wall next to Khalashaya. I shoved her off and managed to kick the stick away from Khalashaya before it touched him.
"You were here when Khalashaya was a child" I said, remembering Prenaslavka's story.
"Him?" She said, pointing at Khalashaya. "Betrayed by his own father. Yes I was present at the court that decided to discover what made someone refuse to go through the Dream."
Anger stirred inside me, that unfamiliar kind that attacked me without warning, the anger that I had felt here and in my first few days with the treetop Falaira. It had died down after then and I had forgotten it.
I wondered then if it had been caused by my close proximity to the Eurikayl, above my head the whole time, the answer to our problem.
That made me remember something I really wanted to know.
Before I asked the question, Gleema Leeh appeared next to her. I looked her in the eye as she stood calmly next to the hateful Gleema Dan and it hit me that the two of them were supposed to be on the opposite side of good and evil; Leeh was a Molecha, a mythical amalgam of Falaira and Eurikaya and the result of a creation so evil that it was not spoken of for millennia.
Dan was a Gleema supposed to protect the interests of a civilisation who had given up their own natural magic in order to protect the planet from an evil that had nearly decimated them.
And yet Leeh had realised what she was and, in her own way, tried to help me; befriending me and the Free Falaira and giving us her inherited memories so that we could try and find the truth.
I just wished I had known her longer, this strange mixture of sister and parent.
I smiled at Leeh who smiled back and answered my question.
"Why did you not intervene when the Eurikaya started killing? We accidentally brought it with us from New Earth and it killed the very next day. It killed Nikka and then Geebani and you did not act".
She advanced towards me and I felt power move inside me, whatever was happening to me would have to be dealt with later but it seemed to be helping at the moment. I thought of Khalashaya, I thought of everyone persecuted because of something they were born with, the women of Zafiya, men on Deloran, magical people of both genders. I injected steel into my gut and faced her down.
Lifting up my hands, I saw that the blackness was spreading. I was turning into something else.
She sent a pulse of magic my way, this time my barrier only just held. I sent one back and she shook but remained standing. She was extremely powerful and I was only very basic in my training. She would overpower me shortly.
Anger hit me again, she would answer me.
"My question. Answer it."
She looked angry and then a shadow of fear crossed her face.
"The spells needed to tap into its power have been lost since the days of Ericl and Aran".
"Yes, our Queen said the same thing not a day since, one of you is telling an untruth because here we are, with Eurikaya alive and well on this planet".
"We also cannot touch it". She said.
I tried a different tack.
"We want the same thing. Let us take the Eurikayl and rediscover the magic needed to remove the enemy from our midst."
"You will bring them back. Control them, use them to destroy the Gleema and bring magic back!"
She was screaming now. Where were the others? Any minute now she would attack properly and that would be it for me. I could be the only Falaira to be able to touch or even magically move the stick. If I died then any hope of removing the Eurikaya died with me.
I do not know how I knew this, a voice deep inside me told me it was the way, the truth and the life. Like the Jesus stories of old, the stories of a man who had lived, breathed and come from holy God himself; touching New Earth with his presence.
I, for whatever reason, was key to the whole plan.
She ran at me and I was thrown to the wall next to Khalashaya, then I screamed as I realised I was on fire. I was burning to death. Yet I was not in pain, I imagined a barrier between my naked skin and the flames and they burned harmlessly, a mirage like the reflection of moonlight on the lake next to Leeh's grave.
I had been holding off because I had hoped there would be another way, but there was not.
I looked at the Eurikayl and lifted it. With my left hand I placed a barrier behind Dan. Tears pricked my eyes but I had to do this, for Herena, Geebani and Khalashaya, the man who lay next to me probably dead.
It rose and hit her square in the face. She put her hands up to her face and screamed an unearthly scream that seemed to come from the bowels of the dark place itself. Steam rose from between her fingers and I smelt burning.
I felt myself weaken. I could not do this. Even to her. I could not descend to that level.
Then Khalashaya was standing next to me and Leeh was smiling at him, a smile that was like the sun breaking out from behind the darkest clouds. He looked at me and there was so much compassion and sadness in his gaze.
"You're nearly there little one" he said in my head. Why did he say this so sadly?
He turned to Dan with fire in his eyes and lifted her up and smashed her into the barrier behind her.
She screamed once more and then stopped.
She fell to the floor and I could not look at what remained of her. The result of what I had done.
Almost There
I picked up the Eurikayl and put my hand through his.
"The others!" I said quickly, "Let's go".
He looked upon the corpse of his oppressor, the woman who had tortured him and his mother and thousands of their kind. He did not look happy but his expression was that of peace.
"It is done." He said.
I bent down next to Woodarch and touched his face, burrowing into his mind, I could see that he was not far from rejoining us in the waking world. I closed my eyes and reached for him through the mists.
Like a light in the fog he was there twinkling away.
"Come with me", I said to the light.
Opening my eyes, he was there. He opened his eyes and gagged, the bruises around his throat showing sharply against his pale sallow skin.
"Come."
We stood up, Woodarch glanced at Dan's body but said nothing; instead, he shared a meaningful look with
Khalashaya.
Then we were walking until we with the others by the staircase. Taking a deep breath, I led us downward.
"What happened to you?" Khalashaya's voice in my head comforting me.
"I am doing what I was born to do. I am protecting you like you protected me".
I wanted to tell him not to forget me, to think well of me after today. Especially since my contact with the Eurikayl had shown me the sacrifice I would have to make.
Once again he was there in my head, piercing through my grief.
"We will save you. We will save everyone."
I ignored him and kept on walking. I knew we would not be able to get away magically on that secret hidden floor. There was too much magic there to allow it. We had to move downwards.
As soon as our feet touched the marble floor of the level below, we were gone but not before a spear from one of the warriors guarding the staircase had gone straight into my stomach.
I barely had time to register the pain and fear before we were standing in front of the Orb.
Something was wrong, very wrong. Like when I had touched the door of my father's house after his murder, like when I had seen the men walk into the house on the night my mother was murdered.
They had walked straight in and pinned her against the wall by her throat while another Defender held my father fast.
Then they had used her, and then me, like animals, like the lowest of the low. I had never got over it, I had never healed. Until meeting Khalashaya and realising there was more to me than victimhood and small victories.
Pain threw me to the floor. I heard Khalashaya scream as my blood splashed the earthen floor.
I was not alone on the floor, corpses were strewn everywhere. Next to me was the dead body of Raven who was holding a dead child in her arms, protector to the last.
Then he was next to me and his hand was on my stomach. He closed his eyes and the pain subsided. The fog cleared and I was able to see clearly.
"It stops the pain but not the bleeding. I'm sorry." His voice broke as we looked around us. I looked down at my stomach. The wound was there but the spear was gone. It had not impaled me, but the wound was deep, our disappearance had saved me from instant death.
I stood up and grabbed the Eurikayl.
"The Eurikaya have been here".
"They are here still." The voice chilled me to the bone and I knew what it was before I turned to face it. The stench of the Eurikaya was unbelievable.
Ericl, or at least his dark Ogra stood in front of me. I knew now that he was the one who had killed my father, the one who had killed so many in the Gleema city and so many here today.
"You did not feel weak this time" it taunted me and laughed. "The Eurikayl protected you".
"You have been killing everyone around me" I addressed it's dark face, if one could call it a face, and it's red holes for eyes.
"Why not me? Why did you spare me that night?"
"I could not kill". It said softly.
It moved toward me.
It reached for me. I gripped the Eurikayl tighter and it hesitated before continuing to advance. Then elongated fingers were on my face and I was struggling not to be sick.
"I could not kill my own flesh", it hissed like the snake it was, burrowing deep inside me and stoking the suppressed fears therein like an unholy fire.
"I am not you, you are nothing to do with me". I found I was screaming at it, doing anything to avoid the inevitable.
"Auriana!" Shouted Khalashaya. "Do not listen to it! You are good! You have always done what it right with no thought for your own safety! Even the first night, with the woman in the stocks."
"Good, when it suits you Auriana. You hated him."
"Hated who?" I found my voice was shaking as I fought to control myself in this waking nightmare.
It actually smiled.
"Your father. When they violated your mother and you and your father did nothing. He stood there, he let them send her to Oblivion"
"He was my father! I loved him!" I found my eyes were wet as I said the words.
"You hated him. You killed him in revenge".
"You killed him". Said Khalashaya, the shade of Leeh next to him. She was solemn now but still sending love my way. She and Khalashaya would keep me strong. No matter what came next.
"Yes." It said simply, the end of the word elongated like the hiss of a snake.
"I am you. The scope of the magic used to create the Eurikayl is more than your Queen could ever understand". It spat the words out as if they tasted of something bad.
"I connected with Falaira present and future. Your Ogra is present before your birth. I became yours Auriana and I have been there since you were born, the force behind everything you are".
"Whatever you are". I said, my voice shaking. "Is not all I am".
It laughed again. "Every death has been your doing aided by me. The father you secretly blamed for the death of your mother, the Gleema who beat and imprisoned you. Even the woman killed so that I could appear to you, she was the one who originally informed Gleema Dan of the magic you had cast to come to Deloran. You knew, and you acted."
"And" It continued, "I have not been idle this night. More have died tonight. The minute you touched the Eurikayl, I was able to exist without you for longer and you activated the magic."
I could feel myself fading, both in body as the blood drained from it and in my emotional state as what the creature said resonated with me! Had I killed my own father? Would my own evil Ogra have been that bad? Terrible things had happened to me but had I not used that horror to try and do some good?
Khalashaya and Woodarch stepped forward.
"She is a full blooded Falaira. She is one of us." Said Khalashaya.
"No matter what", said Woodarch, holding my hand and standing with me against the creature.
Leeh stepped forward, visible to everyone now as the men recoiled.
"She is helping us" I said to Woodarch. "Let her speak".
Leeh stood on the other side of me and held my other hand, the one wrapped around the Eurikayl.
"You know what you need to do. The words and the Eurikayl combined will send all Eurikaya back to the dark place and keep them there."
The Eurikaya screamed and went to move toward her. I put up a barrier that contained it.
"I don't know the words to use. They are lost Leeh. I don't know what to do". I felt my voice break on the last word. I was dying of my wound and I was the only one who could do it.
"Yes you do" she said.
A Choice
Khalashaya addressed her directly now that he could see her.
"She does?"
"Yes. Your dream, they have been telling you since you were a small child. Singing to you."
"So even if she knows the words and is the only one who can wield the Eurikayl, she cannot destroy them without destroying herself at the same time”. Khalashaya was shouting now, starting to lose control.
"No." She said sadly.
"It comes to that Khalashaya. I have made my peace with that." The words that left my mouth were not strictly true, but my instinct was to comfort him, even at the end. I was not afraid to die but I did not want to lose my life when I had only just started living it.
"No!" He shouted at me, “there has to be another way!"
"There is no one else who can do it. It's what the Queen meant by sacrifice. She knew, she knew what would have to be done." I said. Then I felt her behind me, touching my mind gently with hers.
I looked at the Orb, the faces of the Free Falaira and Leeh, free at the end. Tears pricked my eyes as I thought of what I was losing. But they were my people, they were my kind, my friends, the only friends I had ever had. They would not survive if I did not do this. The Eurikaya would create even more of themselves using the Eurikayl. I could not let that happen.
I looked at Khalashaya, the man who had been both friend and protector and so much more to me.
"I love you" the words comin
g from my mouth acting like balm to a heart that had been shattered into pieces years before. I realised how much my love for him had healed me.
His eyes were full of wonder as he gazed at me, the realisation spreading across his face like a sunrise. I could not bear to see them filled with the sadness that would come. I looked away.
The Long Lost Page 31